


Caneza Sword

by heartemoji



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom
Genre: Antarctic Empire (Dream SMP), Disabled Philza (Dream SMP), Gen, Winged Philza (Dream SMP)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29894523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartemoji/pseuds/heartemoji
Summary: An exploration of Phil using a cane ft. the fall of the Antarctic Empire.
Relationships: Technoblade & Philza (Dream SMP)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32





	Caneza Sword

**Author's Note:**

> Got super inspired by caneza art and wrote this quickly a week ago.

Techno gave Phil the hand carved cane late at night on a seemingly random day. Phil held the oak cane up to the torchlight and inspected the painted black and white feathers that covered its length up to the handle. He noted its surprisingly heavy weight while he looked at the green leather handle, shaped to be comfortable for daily use, and the small, red heart symbol Phil associated himself with carved into its back.

“Is this your way of telling me I’m old?” Phil pulled the cane close to himself and turned towards Techno.

His piglin friend laughed. “No, this is me telling you to take care of yourself.”

Phil scoffed. “I’ve been taking care of myself just fine.”

Techno’s expression fell into something very judgemental. “I’ve noticed, Phil, since I got back I’ve realized that you spend as little time standing as possible.”

Only Technoblade could try to downplay the largest strategic failure the empire had seen in the last few centuries with a simple ‘since I got back’. Ten months ago Techno and his troops had been led into a trap that resulted in the entire city they had been capturing being carpet bombed. A spy in their ranks had fed information to their enemy, causing the seven month disappearance and presumed death of Techno. But, he did return, and Techno seemed to have changed when he did- he withdrew into himself and kept everyone at a relative arm’s length.

“I’m fine, mate, you don’t need to worry about me.”

“I can see how you tense your wings while you’re walking, you stay close to chairs and lean against walls more than before the incident. I’ve seen you break the necks of fully grown men with the force you dive onto them feet first like a bird of prey- of course your legs are going to hurt. We’re not young men anymore, Phil, and you should take care of yourself. Let me pay you back for all the times you took care of me when I was new to the Overworld.”

“I…” Phil looked at the cane’s beautiful carvings. “This is beautiful, Techno, it really is, the craftsmanship is amazing, but it makes me feel really old.”

“Phil we’re multiple times older than every other person in this castle, you’re going to have to accept that you’re old at some point.” Techno held out a hand. “Here, let me see the cane.”

He handed it over and Techno gripped the length of the cane in one hand, the handle in another, and then twisted it up and out, revealing a shining netherite blade. “It’s also a fully enchanted sword.”

Immediately that piqued Phil's interest and he took the blade from Techno's hands and inspected the spellwork. "Did you forge and enchant this yourself?"

"Yup, the woodwork and leatherwork was commissioned, though. Started it soon after I got back and it was just finished."

Phil unsheathed the cane's sword and felt the blade's weight. "It's amazing, and wicked sharp, is it fully enchanted?"

"Yup, figured I should pump it full of enchants since you wouldn't take anything less than the best."

"I'd take any gift you give me, Techno." Phil resheathed the sword with a satisfying click and set the bottom on the ground.

He leaned on it experimentally and angrily noted the stress it relieved from his aching legs.

"I… thanks, mate."

"Are ya gonna use it?" Techno asked bluntly.

"Jury's still out on that one."

"I'll take it."

"To be honest it's almost too beautiful not to use."

Techno smiled. "You're a self-conscious old man."

Phil whacked his leg with the cane. "Hey!

They both laughed.

"Well, good night, Phil. At the very least use it around your room, this is me trying to watch out for you." Techno turned to leave Phil's room.

"Will do, mate, for you."

"That's all I ask, Phil." Techno left.

Techno vanished off the face of the planet the next day. He left a sort of fake grave behind him, dictating his abandonment of the Antarctic Empire. Search parties were sent out to hunt Techno, but not a single returned with knowledge of his whereabouts. He had never set up any procedures for his potential death- viewing them as a weakness to his undying persona- leaving Phil as the sole leader of the Antarctic Empire.

Considering Techno didn't bother with politics, and instead functioned mainly as the general to their armies, Phil promoted Techno's second-in-command and began restructuring their upper government to take pressure off himself. During all this he constantly used the cane in his own private quarters and began dreading time he spent in the presence of his other government officials.

But, as a result of his restructuring he had given himself some free time to spend away from the castle. Phil replaced his recognizable set of clothes with civvies with a hood to hide his face, and took his cane with him onto the streets of the empire. He specifically stayed away from the upper class areas around the castle where he'd be more easily recognized and instead stuck by the middle and lower classes and mingled with them for the first time in centuries.

He'd almost forgotten what it was like to interact with people that treated him and each other like friends instead of political pawns. Most of the villagers thought of him as a little old survivalist that had been around too long and accidentally outlived his entire family… and they weren’t that far off from the truth.

During his time with them he realized the state his government had left the middle and lower classes- most of them could hardly survive with their earnings and the little care the government gave them outside of, frankly poor, police protection. Life expectancy was far lower than the upper classes as most of the lower classes worked as miners or farmers and died in incidents involving mobs and most families were barely compensated for any permanent deaths that were caused.

There was little Phil could do about every single problem over the next few decades, it turned out. He and the new general were stretched thin, at Techno's disappearance their enemies rightly recognized their weakness and the Antarctic Empire began losing territories at their outermost borders with startling frequency. With the decline of the empire's power under Phil's sole reign most political leaders were wary to listen to his advice and he had lost much of his social and political power while restructuring the government.

In the end it was repeated assassination attempts that forced Phil to resign quietly one night. He, like Techno, left with little fanfare, but did not leave behind anything as dramatic as a grave. His desire to leave the empire drove him far very far north until he ended up on a relatively small island nation that had managed to separate itself from the empire a few decades prior named England.

Phil quickly settled into a life there to the point where he shed his native Antarctic accent and replaced it with the local one; and he started wearing green civvies reminiscent of his Antarctic uniform and happily returned to wearing a bucket hat. His cane also travelled with him, it became necessary to use during his year long horseback journey to England. It kept the pressure off his knees in his new civilian life, and aided by the nightly application of very mild healing potions, he managed to halt the worsening of his leg pains.

The cane's mending enchant worked overtime for the next decade until Phil forced himself to retire it when Wilbur entered his life. He hated replacing the cane sword, but he felt uncomfortable having his small baby around such a dangerous weapon constantly, and ended up replacing it with a simple black cane, no sword attached.

Wilbur was five when Phil saw a face on tv he thought he'd never see again. An American tournament champion that had destroyed his competition and went by the title the 'Blood God'. Phil started writing a letter instantly, it simply contained his id for the newfangled communicators, a return address, and one of his feathers. He signed it with 'an old friend' and sent the letter to the address he'd found for Technoblade.

It took two and a half weeks for Phil to get a ping on his comm from Techno. Without beating around the bush they confirmed each other’s identities and then fell back into their familiar patterns as if half a century hadn’t passed since they’d last spoken.

Techno visited occasionally while Wilbur was growing up, and always made a comment about Phil’s child-proof cane. But, eventually, Wilbur flew the coop as soon as he turned 18 and Phil took out his well-worn gift from Techno. He couldn’t help but enjoy how comfortable it let him be, not only did it ease his pain but he enjoyed the feeling of being constantly armed even in places where weapons weren’t allowed. (Though there were a few places that checked his cane and forced him to get one that wasn’t hiding a deadly weapon.)

And then, Phil landed for the first and last time on L’Manburg soil; he hit the ground softly on his feet and used his cane to make his way to an underground room containing a single button.

Immediately after the explosion, while his injured wings were still in the early stages of healing, Phil couldn’t move them well. His left wing had also lost a good amount of feathers and as such largely threw off his balance- he could hardly move them and he constantly tried to throw out his right wing to compensate for the light weight of his left wing. In this time he was never more grateful for the cane helping him steady himself.

By the time Dream and Techno decided that it was the end of New L’Manburg’s life Phil was able to set aside his cane, pick up a sword, and reign hell down on the country that killed Wilbur. At the very end Phil picked up his cane and walked out of the ruins of L’Manburg.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
